Monday, March 10, 2014

if you've collected sports cards over the last twenty years, you know damn well what MTG is. Dont deny it, you know it.

As much as most sports card collectors dislike Magic: The Gathering, i have a news flash, it is NOT going away. Not anytime soon, that's for sure. i recently started looking at MTG again for the first time in 19 years (you read that correctly). i was a casual player back in 1994/95. Revised Packs were $3, and Starter Decks were ten bucks.

Playing with friends was fun, and i never went in for the tournaments, but i still had a good time. i started playing friendly matches with other people, and grew bored with playing against people that would for example, use an "all red deck" and be content with ending the game in 5 to 10 turns. Great, you "won", but damn that was boring and quite unimagineative. bleh.

So, back in 2003ish i wound up selling all my magic cards (whoopsie). sure i should have held on to them, because some of them now are pretty big bucks, but it is what it is.

The game now appears to be more popular than ever. MTG celebrated 20 years of existence last year. That's pretty crazy when you step back and think about it. Talking to others about it, its going to continue to get more popular and appears to actually benefit from the online version, go figure.

From the purely speculative aspect of MTG, take a look at all the releases so far, and how many of those releases that are still around in unopened booster (wax packs, essentially) box form sell for less than $100 a box? Now, im not saying that "investing" in them (or anything really) is a "good idea",
but one has to wonder as the popularity fo the game grows, what the corresponding pricing will be.

There are a lot of things about the game that have changed since i last played, and that means there are a lot of things to learn, but i seriously have to wonder about the future of the unopened product, as with each passing year, there is less and less of it.

After doing a fair amount of research, i feel that i have a good handle on the current state of NHL Rookie Cards.

Let me start with saying that "The Cup" is hands down, "the best RC" that anyone will have available from 2005 onward. That being said, there are other options for people that want to collect NHL Rookie Cards, but dont have a huge bankroll to do so.

If oncard auto RCs are your thing, but you dont have pockets for The Cup, then i suggest SP Authentic. They're numbered to 999, so there are a nice amount of the to go around. They can get a bit pricey depending on the player(s) you want.

If you want a nice looking Rookie Card, but do not require an auto, and/or individually numbered cards, then i suggest going with "Young Guns". With all the super premium wax being released each year, UD Series 1 and 2 remain one of the (if not THE) most popularly collected sets across the Hobby. That's probably why Young Guns rookie cards are considered by so many to be the most popular rookie cards made. They are readily available, not TOO pricey (debateable) and on top of all that, they LOOK FANTASTIC, featuring an on-ice action shot. The colors just pop on most of them.
Im a big fan :)

There are other brands as well that have a nice assortment of RCs in them, but honestly the above sets have a long running tradition of quality/history that will continue for the foreseeable future.